Amnesty International called on the U.S. to investigate reports of civilians killed and wounded by CIA drone strikes in Pakistan in a report released Tuesday that provided new details about the alleged victims of the attacks, including a 68-year-old grandmother hit while farming with her grandchildren.

The daughter-in-law smashes the cockroach under her foot and rolls open the rusted metal doors to the garage. Light spills onto a small figure huddled on a straw mattress in a dank room. A curious face peers out.

The Australian government plans to raise the nation's debt ceiling by a whopping two-thirds to 500 billion Australian dollars ($486 billion) in a bid to avoid any future Washington-style political crisis over spending.

New Zealand's government has agreed to allow its postal service to deliver mail as infrequently as three days a week to most customers from 2015 as the volume of letters declines precipitously in an era of electronic communication.

A generation ago, Dr. Akira Sugenoya performed lifesaving cancer surgery on more than 100 children after the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe. Today, as mayor of a central Japanese city, he's trying to avoid a repeat of his own history.